More than a month after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the problems it has thrown up are still far from being resolved. Over the past fortnight the complicated issues were taken to the streets with various citizen groups organising demonstrations to protest the inadequacy of relief measures undertaken by the Government.

While Chief Minister Arjun Singh dismissed the demonstrations with the comment "it is distressing that people are trying to play politics in relation to even this issue," he did meet a 28-member delegation of the Jaharili Gas Kand Sangharsh Morcha on January 4 and address the demonstrators. His assurances, however, failed to impress the Morcha representatives and their dharna outside Singh's residence continues.

In New Delhi last fortnight, the new Rajiv Gandhi ministry was quick to show its concern for Bhopal victims by sending the Minister of State for Law and Justice, H.R. Bharadwaj, for an on-the-spot survey of the various ramifications. Bharadwaj on his return announced that the Attorney General K. Parasaran was being sent to the US to consult legal opinion on the maintainability of action and jurisdiction of American courts over charges to be filed by gas victims at state expense.

Not withstanding such signs of hope for the gas victims, it is still unclear why the lack of direction still persists. The dilly-dallying is best illustrated by the functioning of the 36-member state level relief and rehabilitation committee, set up on December 5 with Singh at its head. Despite its two meetings - on December 6 and 27 - it has yet to arrive at any major decision except to set up two seven-member subcommittees.

The financial relief subcommittee with Bhopal Mayor R.K. Bisariya as convenor decided that ex-gratia payment to victims would be made after a survey and that the director of veterinary services would undertake a survey on dead cattle. Nothing concrete appears to have been done on both counts. The rehabilitation subcommittee convened by the chief minister's, wife, Saroj Singh, decided in its only meeting that milk would be distributed free to children and lactating mothers - the only step of any consequence.

In every area of government the lethargy is evident and the only major decisions relate to the distribution of free milk and ration. Apart from 11,000 litres of milk being given out per day, the Government announced that all families in the affected areas of the old city would be given 3 kg of wheat and rice per unit, on their ration card, for December.

The benefit was later extended to January - and 12 kg per unit - and for all slum-dwellers of the city, including new Bhopal, because of the severe dislocation in city life over the last month. By January 6, over 850 tonnes of wheat and 410 tonnes of rice had already been distributed through 180 centres. Edible oil and sugar are also being distributed.

But the logistics created problems too. Nearly, 21,000 temporary ration cards had to be made almost overnight for residents who had none. Officials agree that many bogus applications had been entertained, but then the burden of work and short notice left them no option.

The single biggest ground for resentment among the survivors is the delayed distribution of ex gratia by the Government, which had announced that Rs 10,000 would be given to the heir of every dead, Rs2,000 to those seriously affected and Rs 100 to Rs 1,000 to those slightly affected. In its initial panic the Government decided to rush the payment and Rs 36.67 lakh was paid in cash as ex gratia to 5,724 victims.

The haphazard manner was clearly a mistake, and within four days the Government suspended the operation because it had the potential of creating serious law and order problems. It was declared that the disbursement would be resumed on December 12 - and payment would be by cheque - only after a quick house to house survey of the affected localities.

But it remained suspended well into January when payments to the relatives of the dead were resumed. According to informed sources, no decision could be taken on who would take responsibility for what was clearly a thankless job: neither the Finance Department nor the district authorities wanted to assume the burden of sorting the really needy from the avaricious who were sure to claim that they too were affected. Therefore, payments to them have been withheld owing to lack of positive identification.

The key questions remain: Who is an "affected" person? Which is the "seriously affected area"? Says an official: "Every local leader claims that his area is affected. In a sense that is true because most of the city's population was either medically affected or dislocated during Operation Faith, if not earlier. But does that mean that the Government will pay ex-gratia to each of Bhopal's 8 lakh citizens?"

A protest demonstration in Bhopal: Fighting lethargy

The authorities are unwilling to take a stand. If they identify the slightly and seriously affected they will be stuck with demands for money from a huge population which they cannot satisfy.

And with the postponed parliamentary election due on January 28, they are just sitting out the problem for the time being. But the net result is that the really needy, many of whom are unable to resume work because of illness, are not getting their just dues.

Argues Vibhuti Jha, a local lawyer, and a Morcha leader: "Surely there is no dispute about the fact that everyone in the settlements immediately around the factory inhaled large quantities of methyl isocyanate (MIC). Why isn't everyone in these areas getting Rs 2,000 per head as per the administration's promise?" The Government considers, this demand unreasonable but can offer no solution of its own either. It has only agreed to settle the ex gratia claims of the 1,404 officially declared dead.

Providing relief to the owners of the 1,776 cattle and goats killed by MIC poses similar problems. In principle the administration has agreed to compensate them but according to one official "corporators of various wards are making such exaggerated claims that it is no longer possible to determine the truth from the lies". And, therefore, this money isn't being released either.

If identifying the genuinely needy from the bogus poses a problem to officials handling the distribution of relief for material loss, officials in the Health Department have a problem many times that size. They are yet unable to detail how precisely tabs will be kept on the condition of virtually thousands of people who have inhaled MIC.

The documentation of these cases is essential not only for medical reasons but from the legal point of view as well. The extent of injury suffered is a vital issue in any case of compensation be it in an Indian or an American court. As of now, the only thing definitely known is that the lungs and eyes have been damaged. But in each case, the extent of injury will have to be quantified: merely arguing that a person was admitted to hospital following MIC poisoning will not do in court.

Already, only a month after the tragedy, government officers are unable to distinguish a seriously affected victim from a normal person or a slightly affected one. How then, with the existing limited documentation, will victims establish in a court of law several months or years later that their illness is the result of MIC and not something else? Says 30-year-old Garish Sarin, a California-based attorney: "Carbide is going to use everything it has to disprove claims. If a person has no medical proof, he may as well say goodbye to compensation."

Premji Srivastava, secretary of the State Legal Aid Board, while willing to talk of the rush of people to fill forms for the case which the Madhya Pradesh Government has decided to file in the US, seems to treat the issue of medical documentation as of no consequence currently: "Our first priority is to fill the forms. We can deal with the medical problem when it arises." But later may be too late.

There is another danger. American lawyers may hire doctors to record the medical condition of their clients but it is going to mean huge expenses to cater to so many thousands. The fear is that they may consider it a viable proposition only to fight cases of death and the very seriously affected, which may mean that partly affected people are left high and dry.

The Government's extraordinary attitude of secrecy right from day one has led to needless speculation, rumours and doubts. Whether it was the abrupt closure of schools and colleges without assigning reasons last month before Operation Faith or the manner of neutralising MIC; whether it was the question of the quantity of MIC to be neutralised or the nature of air, water and plant safety tests; whether it was the names of the dead on the official list or details of the manner in which ex gratia had been distributed, very little information was forthcoming.

Also curious was the state Government's anxiety at the writ petition filed at the high court in Jabalpur on behalf of a Bhopal citizen, by lawyer Rakesh Shrouti, on December 16. The petition sought that the Government be directed not to neutralise the entire quantity of MIC and a sample be preserved for the commission of enquiry that has been set up to go into the tragedy. It also asked that the equipment should not be tampered with.

The high court vacation judge B.M. Lal directed that 15 kg of MIC be put in three containers and put under the custody of the district and sessions judge at Bhopal. On December 19, however, Union Carbide and the state Government moved an application arguing that it was not feasible, indeed dangerous, to preserve this amount of MIC.

The judge modified the earlier order and reduced the quantity to 1,500 gms. Union Carbide and the Government moved fresh applications stating that even such a quantity could not be safely stored.

At the final hearing, on January 4, a division bench comprising Justice Faizamuddin and Justice M.D. Bhatt directed that not only the quantity of MIC be preserved for the inquiry commission, but also ordered a re-analysis of the chemical.

The justices ruled that while the re-analysis would take place under the direct supervision of CSIR chief Dr Vardarajan, a scientist of the petitioner's choice could also be present. The anxiety of a government which once thought nothing of storing nearly 90 tonnes of MIC, over being required to preserve even a sample of the toxic chemical, is seen as something suspect by many.

If the Government is faced with a problem of credibility it has only itself to blame. At no point has it bothered to take the public into confidence. Though the chief minister asserts that "we are not tinkering with the problem," nothing has been done to rehabilitate the families of those dead or those too ill. It awaits the results of a detailed survey being conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, along with other organisations, of about 25,000 families.

Mrs Nirmala Buch, secretary of the state level relief and rehabilitation committee, says that it will be completed by January end. But again, it may take some time before the findings are tabulated. Meanwhile, the survivors, it would seem, will simply have to learn to wait.

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